Urges more competition in search.

Google's dominant position in search could be costing Australians up to $430 million in "lost time", according to the latest salvo by Microsoft-sponsored lobby ICOMP.

The group filed a submission to the Productivity Commission's retail industry inquiry prepared by economic consultancy ACIL Tasman.

The submission argued that Google had the incentive and ability to reduce the "efficiency of search" in order to drive more business its way.

“We estimate that, if this incentive is acted on and search efficiency is reduced by 10 percent, the annual cost to Australians in terms of lost time would be approximately $430 million,” the report alleged.

ACIL Tasman alleged that about $1.5 billion in gross national product improvements could be had in Australia by improving competition between online search providers.

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